Moby Dick: or, the White Whale eBook

In disposing of the body of a right whale, when brought
alongside the ship, the same preliminary proceedings
commonly take place as in the case of a sperm whale;
only, in the latter instance, the head is cut off
whole, but in the former the lips and tongue are separately
removed and hoisted on deck, with all the well known
black bone attached to what is called the crown-piece.
But nothing like this, in the present case, had been
done. The carcases of both whales had dropped
astern; and the head-laden ship not a little resembled
a mule carrying a pair of overburdening panniers.

Meantime, Fedallah was calmly eyeing the right whale’s
head, and ever and anon glancing from the deep wrinkles
there to the lines in his own hand. And Ahab
chanced so to stand, that the Parsee occupied his
shadow; while, if the Parsee’s shadow was there
at all it seemed only to blend with, and lengthen
Ahab’s. As the crew toiled on, Laplandish
speculations were bandied among them, concerning all
these passing things.

CHAPTER 74

The Sperm Whale’s Head — Contrasted View

Here, now, are two great whales, laying their heads
together; let us join them, and lay together our own.

Of the grand order of folio leviathans, the Sperm
Whale and the Right Whale are by far the most noteworthy.
They are the only whales regularly hunted by man.
To the Nantucketer, they present the two extremes
of all the known varieties of the whale. As the
external difference between them is mainly observable
in their heads; and as a head of each is this moment
hanging from the Pequod’s side; and as we may
freely go from one to the other, by merely stepping
across the deck:—­where, I should like to
know, will you obtain a better chance to study practical
cetology than here?

In the first place, you are struck by the general
contrast between these heads. Both are massive
enough in all conscience; but, there is a certain
mathematical symmetry in the Sperm Whale’s which
the Right Whale’s sadly lacks. There is
more character in the Sperm Whale’s head.
As you behold it, you involuntarily yield the immense
superiority to him, in point of pervading dignity.
In the present instance, too, this dignity is heightened
by the pepper and salt color of his head at the summit,
giving token of advanced age and large experience.
In short, he is what the fishermen technically call
a “grey-headed whale.”

Let us now note what is least dissimilar in these
heads—­ namely, the two most important organs,
the eye and the ear. Far back on the side of
the head, and low down, near the angle of either whale’s
jaw, if you narrowly search, you will at last see
a lashless eye, which you would fancy to be a young
colt’s eye; so out of all proportion is it to
the magnitude of the head.